Changing SOLIDWORKS Dimensions to reflect changing design intent

Okay, so you’ve spent some time designing a part and then you go to make a change and realize that your Design Intent has changed. Changing design intent involves changing SOLIDWORKS dimensions. Let me give you an example:

Design Intent Changed

So in the above example, I thought that the length of the middle bar of my “E” part was more important than the relative length of it to the top/bottom bars. This can often happen if there starts out being no design intent or if the design intent is unknown. It can also happen if you “inherit” someone else’s design. I don’t care what the 50mm dimension is, I want to control the dimension marked in red. While it might be easy enough to delete and replace the dimension, did you know I can change the dimension’s reference just by dragging it? Let’s take a closer look at that 50mm dimension:

Select the dimension to get these blue handles

Drag and drop a dimension to make a change

Once you’ve selected the dimension, it will show you blue handles, which can be used to redefine the dimension. Just drag and drop it to the edge you now want it to reference:

Drag & Drop Dimension Handle

Then, before you can blink twice, your sketch reflects your new design intent:

Ta-da! Change Complete.